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Sunday, October 17, 2010

Chanting Where Srila Gurudeva Used to Walk

When the Malaysian sanga heard about Srila Gurudeva’s health, the devotees held a 24 hour chanting at Sri Sri Radha Govinda Gaudiya Math, Petaling Jaya. The newly opened Sri Sri Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Temple of Understanding held chanting and prayers twice a day throughout the weekends. All the devotees were invited to come together to pray for the prolonged good health of Srila Gurudeva. Many devotees, far or near, in their own unique way, offered prayers for Srila Gurudeva so that His Divine Grace will be with all of us for a very, very long time to come. The devotees also had a devotional kirtan and prayer in conjunction with the world wide chanting of Srila Gurudeva’s quick recovery.

During this trying moment, this insignificant soul, spoke to a few devotees whether they would like to hold nama-sankirtan at the park where Srila Gurudeva used to go to during His morning walks. The park is very close by to Sri Sri Radha Govinda Gaudiya Math.

Unfortunately the weather here was not predictable at all. It rained the whole day or sometimes it was fine. Sometimes it rained partly during the day. On the intended day, some devotees could not make it. Besides most of us do not live close by and we are pretty spread out. Only one of my god brother Prem das prabhu and I met at the temple for this park chanting. Armed with only karatalas we headed toward the park. We figured it does not matter whether we were two or ten. The thing is we just wanted to do this. And hopefully we may be able to please Sri Hari, Guru & Vaishnavas.

Luckily the weather seemed to be fine that day. We saw many joggers, young couples with their children and people doing their evening exercises. Most of them were Muslims and we did not want to ruffle anyone’s religious sentiments. So, we picked a spot which was not too near the playground but within earshot and started chanting for 20 minutes. Shortly, we started to glorify how Srila Gurudeva used to walk the entire perimeters of the lake. He would walk so fast that the other devotes could not catch up. But when Srila Gurudeva returned for His morning rest, He would exhibit His nara-lila (human like pastimes) and would hold on to some devotees for support.

Prem dasa prabhu also reminisced how some Russian devotees did nama sankirtan at his home state. Just as he was speaking this, a dried fruit from a tall tree next to us fell with a thud on the bench I was seated. I cried out “Radhe!” My godbrother in jest said the trees wanted us to continue chanting. And so we did for almost half an hour.

Soon we headed back towards the temple for the program. The weather was still fine and after the program, just as the devotees were seated to honour prasadam, a heavy down-pour ensued. It was really heavy with the wind blowing so fiercely.

My god brother and I were glad that it did not happen when we were chanting at the park!

2 comments:

Isn't it sad that you have to worry about offending Muslims. Where is the God Consciousness in you or the Muslims. Is God not transcendental to religion. Is God not One. Surely the God Conscious person, is seeing unity not, division.

I don't have any God consciousness in me. Neither do I want to judge whether the Muslims have one or not. Srila Gurudeva always says it is best not to disturb anyone. We are not seeing division but in Kali-yuga everyone is in division whether we like it or not. We cannot impose on anyone. Besides in my country, religious freedom is there but within the context of one not offending another.